I can't manage to type how I feel about these Komen "for the cure" Marvel Comics breast cancer themed comic book covers because I'm too busy vomiting. And, not from chemo. (The Mary Sue)

  • 3eff_jeff

    Xeni, just image how adorable Robert Downey, Jr. would look in the Pink Ironman Suit with his mask up.  Seriously.

  • http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

    Komen’s doing everything they can to repair the damage caused by the Planned Parenthood funding foul-up. This isn’t going to help much, if at all.

    • EH

      Like many oppressive organizations, they’ve decided to go after the children.

  • Mongrove_Moone

    If the comics and ad campaigns were directed solely at women, the audience-segment of teenage boys (and sadly, some adult men), would either not care or turn it into a joke. I’m not sure how effective this campaign will be, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing.

    • WhyBother

      As for why it’s a bad thing, it gets a bit complicated because a lot of women out there seem to HATE Komen, and to a lesser extent the whole anti-breast cancer funding movement. My wife thinks they’ve hijacked the color pink. My mother is irate that everyone thinks she must care deeply about breast cancer — especially since she’s an RN — because, hey, she’s a woman and that’s a woman issue, right? Meanwhile, research into the bladder, pancreas, and throat cancers that have killed half her family (tire factory workers) are much, much less well-funded. Why isn’t it just cancer research? Why specifically breast cancer? Oh, because people take notice at the word “breast”.

      • Mongrove_Moone

        I guess I’m coming from the perspective that any awareness – especially in a young population – is a good thing. As far as cancer research goes – I agree that we need more of it, but since breast cancer may be viral in origin, it’s possible that we may have a vaccine for it (as with HPV and cervical cancer) before we ever have a vaccine or preventive medicine for other types of cancer. Also, the likelihood of a woman developing invasive breast cancer in her lifetime is over 10%.

        • mistwolf

          It’s not just about awareness, of which there is much, but so-called ‘pinkwashing’ has become a big thing the last few years, with all manner of pink things that ‘support breast cancer research’, or claim to, but in reality offer no real benefit to research and only use it as an advertising tool to move product.

          I support breast – and all – cancer research. I also do it directly. Slapping the color pink (HAH! Girls love pink! It’s so perfect!) on something so the person buying the cheap tat feels like they are doing a great good is just… Ugly.

          Research is important. Pink gimmicks are not the way to support it.

      • EH

        Your wife thinks they hijacked the color pink because they kinda tried to.

  • Brainspore

    Marvel probably isn’t the most reliable source for information about cancer risk considering how many of their characters got awesome superpowers through exposure to radiation.

  • TooGoodToCheck

    But without Komen & their pink comic book covers, how would we achieve Breast Cancer Awareness?

  • brerrabbit23

    It’s certainly clumsy, but I don’t understand what about it is so clumsy as to make you wretch?

  • knoxblox

    It’s nice to see Tony Stark taking the time to worry about breast cancer…when it directly affects him.

    • Brainspore

      Of course he’s at high risk for breast cancer, he has a nuclear reactor in the middle of his chest cavity.

      • knoxblox

         All the more reason to wonder why that up to this point he hasn’t worked on some solution to breast cancer, or any other cancer for that matter.*

        *I do not claim in any way to be a Marvel Comics historian, so it’s entirely likely Stark might have already done something about this. I’m only taking the current campaign’s promo context into consideration.

        • Brainspore
          • knoxblox

            My first and main point…that Tony is self-serving…whether it be saving the world, or saving himself, from breast cancer. My point wasn’t really a discussion of how or why the possibility of breast cancer originated.

            But you’re also correct in your statement that having a nuclear reactor in your chest raises the risk.

            Anyway, we wouldn’t have much personal drama if Tony wasn’t self-serving. I guess we’re both guilty of stating the obvious.

  • Daemonworks

    How would anyone ever hear about breast cancer, if not for pink comic book covers?

  • http://twitter.com/ethicalcannibal Ethical Cannibal

    Thanks. I read a glowing review of Komen’s crap with this, and I was disgusted. If I want to fund breast cancer research, I’ll funnel my cash through a company without Komen’s track record for shitty things. 

    • That_Anonymous_Coward

      They are an awareness group, not a research fundraiser.  This seems lost on so many people.

  • sprucie

    Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but this seems perfectly fine to me. Nothing about it strikes me as a stellar idea, but it sure seems well-meaning even if it isn’t the most lucrative. If two little kids run a lemonade stand or sell their own drawings to raise funds for breast cancer, we’d think that was great even though it was unlikely to make much difference. Are a bunch of pink comic drawings that may increase funding really that offensive? I don’t know anyone with cancer (that I know of), and I don’t know much about Komen except for headlines, but this seems nice. Maybe not super effective, but nice. Is there some hidden crappy agenda that I’m missing?

  • L_Mariachi

    When did Juggernaut join the X-Men? He seems an unlikely candidate.

    • Mister44

      Candidate for the X-Men or for breast cancer, because I bet he has huge man-boobs.

    • rtresco

      He’s been an X-Man in the past, put what you’re seeing is the new/current Juggernaut, who was/is Colossus. Guess it’s been about a year that he’s had that role.

  • Mister44

    According to the article in the link, there is a full page ad in each comic for MALE breast cancer awareness. I guess that makes a bit more sense, as the number of women reading comics is much lower than men. Still with male breast cancer being pretty rare, I wonder if money could have been better spent somewhere else.

  • Verbatim

    Unfortunately, expect these to be hard to find in comics stores. If I recall correctly, Marvel allows retailers to order as many of the pink variants as they want, but only if they order prohibitively high numbers on the regular cover as well (matching the higher initial orders of early issues of the summer’s big event), leaving the stores with stock they won’t be able to sell. Many stores simply won’t be ordering these, simply because Marvel wanted to cash in on, rather than support, this cause.

  • pjcamp

    When did Captain Marvel team up with Hilary Clinton?